Donald Trump says Nvidia chip talks with Xi Jinping didn’t cover Blackwell

Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang has lobbied aggressively against US curbs on the biggest market for Nvidia’s products, which are the industrial standard for training and running artificial intelligence models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT

US President Donald Trump said he didn’t discuss approving sales of Nvidia Corp.’s Blackwell chips to China with his counterpart Xi Jinping, dampening speculation that Washington will allow exports of the powerful AI accelerators to the world’s largest semiconductor market.

Trump said he and Xi talked about Nvidia’s access to China in general, and that it was up to Beijing — which has discouraged domestic firms from using less-powerful AI chips that Washington has approved for sale — to continue conversations with the chipmaker. “We did discuss chips,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “They’re going to be talking to Nvidia and others about taking chips.”

Asked specifically whether the US would authorize exports of Blackwell accelerators, the US president said “we’re not talking about the Blackwell.”

Trump’s comments came just a day after he said he would discuss the Blackwell lineup with Xi, triggering speculation the US would approve the shipment of more powerful AI chips to a geopolitical rival. That would have marked a major win for the world’s biggest company by market value, a significant concession to Beijing, and an upheaval of Washington’s yearslong campaign to curtail China’s prowess in artificial intelligence.

On Wednesday, those earlier comments helped drive a rally that made Nvidia the first company to hit $5 trillion market value. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang has lobbied aggressively against US curbs on the biggest market for Nvidia’s products, which are the industrial standard for training and running artificial intelligence models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.